Ugggh, I’m sleepy. I’m getting pretty dangerously drowsy here. Camping out without even a simple home is really starting to get to me. I thought I’d be able to stick with it, but at this rate I’m going to be in serious trouble if I can’t find a way to get a decent night’s rest.

Really, though, if it was that easy to just get a good night’s sleep, I wouldn’t be forcing myself forward to the point of exhaustion like this. Although it does look like the Earth Dragon isn’t going to chase me here, this place is still swarming with other strong monsters. A simple home is probably not enough protection.

On the other hand, making a proper home is completely out of the question! I am absolutely not going to settle down here. I need to get out of here as quickly as I can. Taking a ton of time to make a more durable home is a huge mistake.

So, the only option I really have is making a simple home, although I don’t know how effective it’s going to be against the monsters that lurk around here… and so on and so on.

What should I dooo? I think, as I shake my sleepy head. Even if I’m just making a simple home, can’t I make it better by doing things a little differently? Like, I don’t want to build it just anywhere; I need to find a place where it’ll be less likely to be found. Easier said than done, though: the rocks here are really craggy, so there’s not really any places to hide among them. Ugh.

Wait, hang on. Do I really have to hide? All I really need is a home that other monsters won’t mess with, right? If that’s the case, I’ve got a great idea.

Immediately, I start to move. My destination? The top of these tall, tall cavern walls: the ceiling.

Whoooaaaa. So hiiiiigh. I’m scaaaaared. Can I really sleep up here? Well, I don’t see any monsters around here that could either fly or climb the walls to get me. Oh, well, there’s the snail-bugs, but that doesn’t matter. I haven’t seen any wasps flying around in this wide-open cavern, so if I make a simple home in the corner between the wall and the ceiling, I should be able to sleep safely in there.

All right then, shall we start building? Whoa, I’m seriously high up. I’ve got to be about a hundred meters off the ground… how many stories is that? If I fall from here, I’m definitely dead. Well, I guess I can fasten a lifeline so that I won’t fall far if I slip, but working with zero safety gear other than that is pretty terrifying. [Fear Resistance], work harder please!

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Fear Resistance – LV 5] has become [Fear Resistance – LV 6]>

I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it. There was no need for that perfectly-timed rebuttal. Man, you startled me!

S… so anyway, I’ve finished the basic frame. It’s pretty simple, just some basic sticky webbing stretched between the wall and the ceiling. I think that next I’m going to hang up some kind of hammock-like web to sleep in.

Hmmm. Although, wouldn’t I then be completely exposed? If something had a long-ranged attack like that Earth Dragon’s breath weapon, I’d be helpless against it. So, how should I hide this… I wonder if I could surround it with loose rocks?

I descend from the ceiling, and find a rock. Hmmm. This one’s pretty big. How can I make this work? Can I chop it up with my silk? I wrap a thread around the rock, and activate Severing Thread. Pull! Hmm, it cut in a little bit, but this isn’t going to work. Maybe if I run it back and forth like a saw…? Oh! It’s working, little by little.

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Poison Resistance LV2] has become [Poison Resistance LV3]>

“Proficiency requirements met. Your skill, [Severing Thread (LV 3)] has been raised to level 4.”

The skill level went up partway through, so my work got a little more efficient. Alright! The rock slices are complete. Now, if I can get these attached to the outside of my nest, I’ll have some camouflage!

I firmly attach threads to each of the rocks, then ascend the hundred meters up to where my nest is. Right, now all that’s left is to start pulling on these threads! Yyyaaaargh! H… heavy! Rggggggh! Ugh, maybe if I use my body weight… And… pull!!

“Proficiency requirements met. Your skill, [Strength (LV 2)] has been raised to level 3.”

At some point my Strength skill leveled up. It leveled up, but man this is still heavy! I’m burning through all of my stamina! This… is… hard!!

“Proficiency requirements met. You have gained the skill [Alacrity (LV 1)].”

“Proficiency requirements met. You have gained the skill [Endurance (LV 1)].”

I picked up some skills! It’s not like I have time to figure out what they do, though! Now… PULL!!

Hah, hah, haaaaaaah. I finally have them all up. Whoa, now that I look, I actually burned through all of my Overeating stockpile and cut into my actual stamina. Maaan, this was way too hard.

Hmm? That’s weird, I thought this was supposed to be a quick-and-easy way to get some sleep… why did I put so much effort into this? Hmmm… no matter how I think about it, this is my own defeat. Yyyyep.

Alright, after all of that effort, it looks like the rocks I’ve got hung up around my nest are doing a great job of hiding me from view. Now all that’s left is making a bed… and… done!

Ahhhhh. Ab, so, lute, bliss. You just can’t beat the comfort of a nest! Now I can finally, finally get some sleep in safety and comfort.

Oh! Let’s check my new skills real quick before I sleep.

Alacrity: Increases the amount of instantaneous Stamina available.

Endurance: Increases the amount of long-term Stamina available.

Oh! The stamina versions of Strength! It looks like my stamina went up from 40 to 41. Stamina is super important, so this is absolutely delightful.

Alright, skills have been checked, and since I’m super exhausted from all that heavy labor, sleep time! After so long, I can finally, finally sleep soundly, so I’m going to rest to my heart’s content.

And, so, good night.

After bullying my friend the pillbug for a while, I’ve gotten up to [Cutting Thread – LV3]. To be honest, I want to keep leveling it a little more, but the pillbug’s remains are at this point entirely unfit for daytime TV, so I can’t really keep going. [Cutting Thread] still isn’t inflicting serious injuries, even at level three, but the garbage still keeps piling up. Pillbug, I will probably, surely, absolutely never, ever forget you. Oh, of course, once I was done I ate it and, of course, it was disgusting as always.

Hmm, now that I think about it, there really wasn’t any reason for me to use the pillbug for target practice! Hitting that rock over there would probably been good enough. Oh crap, did I hurt its feelings? Nah, nah, I bet that its soul is weeping tears of joy, since it was so useful to me. Hm? “Brute”? I have no idea what you’re talking about!

So, after I finished up with bullying the pillbug, a new monster showed up, drawn by the sound or something like that.

{Anograch – LV 8 – failed to appraise status}

First time I’ve seen one of these. It’s a monkey-looking monster, about two meters tall. Since I couldn’t appraise its status, I wanted to just slip past it, but, nope, it spotted me.

Well, somehow it turned out splendidly. It looked like the type that used speed to its advantage, and, guess what, I’m faster. I just dodged around its flailing arms and then, in an instant, snagged it with my thread and tied it up.

That was really scary! No, seriously. It’s been a super long time since I’ve had to fight head-on like that! And this monkey was really strong, too! That terrible whooshing noise its arm made while it was flailing around made it abundantly clear that this guy wasn’t a joke. If it hit me, I was absolutely dead. I dodged every swing as if it were life or death. If I had a mouth, I would have been screaming. Like, “Eeeeek!!”? Yeah, of course like “Eeeeek!!”.

Thanks to my frantic scrambling around, I earned the [Evasion] skill. Appraising it gave predictable results: it’s a skill that raises my ability to evade. Finally, the king of speed-specialization skills! On top of that, as soon as I defeated the monkey, I leveled up.

<Experience has reached the required level. Individual Small Taratect has increased from LV3 to LV4.>

<All basic attributes have increased.>

<Skill proficiency level-up bonus acquired.>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Concentration – LV1] has become [Concentration – LV2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Throw – LV1] has become [Throw – LV2]>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Hit – LV1] has become [Hit – LV2]>

<Skill points acquired.>

Three skills leveled up in one go. Sure, they’re the plain, utilitarian skills, but I’m still really happy! After leveling up, my stats now look like this:

Just as before, everything but my speed stat is terrible. If I didn’t have [Skanda], my speed would be terrible as well, and then all I’d have going for me is my thread. Praise be to [Skanda], and all that.

I may be happy that I got a bunch of stuff just now, but now’s not the time to get careless. I could have attracted more monsters here than just the monkey. So, first things first, time to eat.

Mmm. This guy isn’t poisonous! It’s not bitter at all. It’s got a really peculiar stink to it, though, so it’s still not in the slightest bit tasty. Man, I really miss cows. And pigs. They were the best.

My stamina might be full, but thanks to my [Overeating] skill nothing went to waste. [Overeating]… when I first got it, I was really cautious about it thanks to its negative-sounding name, but now that I know more it’s really quite a useful skill.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I am extremely dependent on my stamina. Spinning webs and running around both drain it considerably, so a skill that lets me store up an extra pile of stamina is super useful for me. If I could use any of my magic, I might wind up spending less stamina, but there’s no point in dwelling on things I can’t do anything about.

Oh, on the subject of magic, I got around to appraising each of the spells I know.

{Discomfort: Manipulates the target’s soul to directly induce discomfort.}

{Phantom Pain: Manipulates the target’s soul to induce illusory feelings of pain.}

{Dark Shadow: Darkens target shadow.}

{Poison Touch: Inflicts poison damage on target touched.}

Discomfort is, just like it’s name, a mind attack. Phantom Pain is pretty similar, too. Poison Touch seems to be pretty powerful, but it’s a level one spell, so there’s probably some sort of downside. Dark Shadow… does exactly what it says it does, but how useful is this? Hmmmm. Do I maybe link this up with higher level Shadow Magic spells? It looks like there’s not really a good basic use for this.

Well, of course, it’s not like I can use any of it anyway! Now then, I’ve finished eating up this monkey, so let’s get back on the road.

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Sneak, sneak.

Left? Clear! Right? Clear! Target acquired, dead ahead!

Ahead of me is a monster that’s kind of like a giant pillbug. Well, it’s got the body of a pillbug, but its head looks more like a rat’s. Is it an insect or a mammal? I want to know. Since it’s pillbug-like, it’s really likely that it curls up into an armored ball when it needs to defend itself. I fought a turtle monster before, and when it retreated into its shell I had a stupidly tough time with it. Well, if I get that pillbug wrapped up in my silk, it won’t be able to curl itself into a ball.

Regardless: Set Casting Net on standby… take this!! Direct hit! [Thread Control] will take care of the rest.

<Condition satisfied. Acquired Title [Thread User].>

<Acquired skills [Thread Control – LV1] [Cutting Thread – LV1] as a result of Title [Thread User]>

<Skill [Thread Control – LV 1] has been integrated into [Thread Control – LV 5].>

<Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Thread Control – LV 5] has become [Thread

Control – LV 6].>

Oh? Ohh?! I got another title!! [Thread User], huh? This titillates my inner special snowflake.

Hey, pillbug, listen, something’s come up, should we just wrap this up now? Does that sound like a plan? …No? Too bad. So; [Poison Fang], [Poison Fang], drag you back behind a rock. Yep!

Now, let’s get straight to figuring out what this new title does. For a title like [Thread User], the requirements must be… using threads, right? Hm? Wellll, If that’s the case, it’s kinda weird that it’s taken me this long to actually earn it. There’s got to be some other requirement.

Well, I’ve got it already, so it actually really doesn’t matter what the acquisition requirements are. I’ve got a better question: is this usable? This time, I’m confident: this title will be very useful. Ah, well, I mean, it bumped my [Thread Control] level up, which is already huge! Day after day I’ve been focusing on grinding this thing out, so having it finally level up makes me so, so happy. Just from that alone, this title is worth something.

What’s really caught my eye, though, is this other skill. [Cutting Thread]. Seriously, doesn’t that sound like something a kid that’s way into anime would come up with? But, is this it? A skill that lets me slash at my enemies with my threads?

It… it can’t be!! Cut down by something I did not see… how?! What could have done this?! Urk… is… is this… thread?!

I can make a scene like that happen, right? Hehe. Yeaaah. This is greeeeat!

Well, special snowflake delusions aside, this is obviously a pretty decent boost to my combat abilities. The only real offensive attack I’ve had up until now was [Poison Fang], but now, at long last, my number of usable attacks has increased to two. Furthermore, this is my thread, my main weapon!

Whoops, haha, I haven’t even appraised this or done any experimentation yet, I need to avoid getting ahead of myself here. First things first: Appraise.

{Cutting Thread: Applies the slashing attribute to threads.}

Umf. It does what its name implies. I was seriously a little worried about what I would have done if it was something completely ridiculous instead.

Well, that’s one worry down. The remaining questions are: can I apply this to my [Spider Thread], can I actually figure out how to activate this skill, and how effective is this at level one…

You know what will come in handy right about now? That monster I just brought down. Come, pillbug, be my lab rat!

Step one, spin some webbing. Crank the strength all the way up to maximum, drop the stickiness to zero. I swing it at the corpse of the pillbug while concentrating on the words [Cutting Thread]. Oh! I definitely feel like it activated.

The thread glanced off of the pillbug’s body. Mmm. It’s level one, alright, I guess it can’t put out very much power? Ah, wait, it cut in a little bit! Isn’t this great for a level one skill? The other skills so far have been pretty terrible at level one, so the fact that this can take a piece out of the pillbug’s tough shell makes it a really amazing skill.

Which reminds me, what does this cost? Did it consume any mana? Hmm… my mana hasn’t gone down at all. My stamina… well, thanks to [Overeating], my stamina isn’t going down at all so I can’t really tell if this had any impact. Keeping in mind [Poison Synthesis], I don’t think that it’s possible for there to be anything that doesn’t consume something. So maybe if the actual red stamina gauge didn’t go down by a full point, something internally must have ticked down a little bit. But while I don’t know exactly how much this costs, the actual cost/performance ratio doesn’t seem that bad. On top of that, I’ve got [Overeating] keeping my red stamina gauge filled up, which makes this pretty convenient!

Next step is to see if I can use this with a sticky thread as well. Once again, I swing a thread at the pillbug. Hm? Hmmm. I’m sure I activated it correctly, but it didn’t even leave a mark.

Well, that’s basically what I expected to have happened. From all of the experimentation I’ve done on my thread, I know that there are some limits on how far I can customize each strand. For instance, if I want to max out a thread’s stickiness, it’s really difficult to keep its elasticity. It’s not that it’s impossible, though; it’s just not really effective. It’s like a thread has a number of points that I can assign to its attributes, and I have to distribute them based on what I want the thread to do. So, when I increased the adhesion attribute, I wasn’t able to max out the slashing attribute anymore. Compatibility-wise, mixing those two attributes isn’t impossible, it’s just not a very realistic goal to have.

Seriously, though, [Cutting Thread] is a pretty substantial skill. It’s basically perfect for me. I need to get its level up as quickly as I can.

So, Mr. Pillbug, that’s what’s happening. You died before your time, and now I’m whipping your corpse, but please help me raise my skill level!

And, so, I continued slashing away at the pillbug’s remains with my [Cutting Thread].

—–

Translator’s notes for this chapter:

1 – The Japanese chapter title is a kanji pun wrapped in a pop culture reference. The theme song for the Street Fighter II anime movie was called “恋しさと せつなさと 心強さと” (Love, Sadness, and a Strong Heart). The first part of the first word is “ito”, which is usually written with the kanji for love (恋) but can also be written with the kanji for thread (糸), which shares the same pronunciation. If that wasn’t enough, the second word was written as 切なさ instead of せつなさ. This actually doesn’t change the meaning at all, since that’s the correct kanji to use in this situation, but it’s deliberately written using kanji (instead of spelling it out in hiragana like in the song title) because the kanji 切 means “cut”.

Honestly, I gave up on this one and put in whatever. The proper thing to do would be to come up with an equally niche American song reference that has equally good punning capacity but, well, fuck it. I’ll fix it if I suddenly think of something (or if someone’s got a really good suggestion!)

Editing/Standardisation: kubor04
Formatting/Extras: APM
Original Translation: Blastron
Additional thanks goes out to mae and Legit-rikk. Join our discord

---

Invisibly, I lurk behind the rocks.

A little ways away from the crags I’m currently hiding behind, this guy slowly creeps along. What… is… this thing? If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s like… a really huge fish that grew arms and legs? Naaah, that’s not quite it. I can’t really pin down what I’m getting off of this mysterious life-form.

Well, I don’t actually care about this strange and mysterious creature. Ah, no, I can’t really say that I don’t care. If it spots me, that would suck.

But before that, I have some extremely important news! Yes, the lovely Miss [Appraisal] has outdone herself once again: I can see my enemies’ stats!! Sure, it might just be their health, mana, and stamina, but just that is amazing, right? The success rate isn’t very good, though, since it hits maybe once for every three or four tries, but knowing even just a part of an opponents’ stats is still huge!

Even with just a rough idea of my opponents’ HP, MP, and SP values, I can still get a pretty decent grasp on how strong they are. So, if I see a huge difference in these values, I absolutely should not fight them. My strategy is self-preservation.

So, in the immediate future, fighting this mysterious life-form is out of the question. These stats are ridiculous, you know! 818 hit points? What the heck? If you hit that guy hard enough to kill me twenty times over, wouldn’t it still have health left? This is inflation, right? Oh man, if this weird-looking thing with the stupid-looking face has stats like this, that Earth Dragon has to have 4-digit HP, doesn’t it?

Nai waaaaaaaa.

From what I’ve gathered so far in the last few days, monsters with levels higher than ten are all powerful. These things are what you’d call advanced monsters, I think, that don’t have any evolution past level ten. So, if I see a monster of a species that can have levels greater than ten, I shouldn’t engage it, even if its own level is less than ten. On the other hand, if I haven’t seen a level ten-plus monster in a given species, then it’s probably weak.

What was really shocking, though, was that even some of the small fry I’ve been hunting had crazy-high stats. Some of them even had triple-digit health! Seriouslyyy, I didn’t know you guys were so strooong, and so on. For sure, fighting these things head-on would have been suicide. I’ve been betting everything on my surprise attacks: an entire battle decided in an instant.

Man, now that I think about it, these things I’ve been calling “small fry” are, uh, higher-rank than I am. Wow, my [Spider Thread] must be a really good skill, if it can immobilize these powerful foes without trouble at all. If it wasn’t the case, then, well, I’d probably be dead by now, haha. Stats may be important, but skills are just as important too!

I really want to know what my opponent’s skills are now… if I knew that, I’d have such a great edge in a fight. When it comes down to it, if you took my skills away from me I’d be left with only my speed. If you bring along fire to burn my webs and an antidote to nullify my [Poison Fang], my odds of winning drop to basically zero. Oh maaan, skill countermeasures suuuck. If I fight someone with that level of preparation, I’m basically just straight-up dead!

Well, I don’t really think the monsters down here are bright enough for that. That’s why a weak little monster like me can survive down here. Intelligence is supreme! It’s humanity’s greatest strength.

Hmmm… humanity, though… I wonder how much of this dungeon humans have explored? The only time I’ve seen humans so far is when they showed up to burn down my nest. I’ve seen footprints, of course, but ever since I wound up in those labyrinthine tunnels, I haven’t seen any. Hmm, if this is indeed the world’s largest dungeon, maybe their exploration isn’t making very much progress?

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m able to eat the monsters down here while humans would have to bring in their own food. If you wanted to explore a huge dungeon like this, you’d need to carry around a huge pile of food. That’s already a huge amount of physical labor required, and on top of that you’d need to fight off all of the monsters down here too. If you had a skill or spell that gave you, say, an inventory screen where you could store all of your stuff in a pocket dimension, that would be a little different, but food is still a pretty big limitation.

Based on this, I think human exploration efforts have probably been limited to the Upper Stratum; and, on top of that, probably just a small section of it. If that’s true, then it makes a lot of sense as to why I haven’t seen very many footprints. If there’s no footprints, it’s out of the explorable range, right?

Hm? Wait a sec… the first set of footprints I found was… back where that huge spider was, in that area with those huge groups of strong-looking monsters? Whoa, that’s in their exploration zone? Even though my mother’s there? …No way, can they defeat that thing?! No way!! If my guess is right, that thing’s got to be about as strong as that Earth Dragon, right? They can defeat that thing?! It’s not impossible? And if it’s not impossible, then wouldn’t that make humans crazy strong?

…I just had a really nasty thought. If humans are strong enough to take out my mother, then I should just avoid the outside world completely. No matter how hard I struggled, I wouldn’t be able to survive. Living down here in the dungeon would be way easier.

Well, for now, let’s just keep on struggling forward, trying to get back to the Upper Stratum. Once I finally manage to get back there, I can find a place where humans won’t go. Wait, no, even if it’s kinda dangerous shouldn’t I go find a human and Appraise their stats, just to be sure? Ah well, it’s not like I’m in a huge hurry. I still have zero clue how to get back up there.